-JACOB’S WELL- 

By: David Getz

Jacobs Well

Even as that last syllable fell

Like a drop of rain cascading to earth from its cumulonimbus shell 

It stirred in my brain a story I now want to tell

Jacobs Well

Not just a building built just a few blocks down from Ewing Park two

Or a small urban church with its back garden view

But a place we all know and embrace when we walk through 

its doors and we see a familiar face

For the church should be something much more than building

A place where individuals can gather for learning

of the tenets and doctrines and outlets for serving

A hurting world that doesn’t even know why its hurting

But the reason we gather is not just ergonomical

No, we have a call that is much more economical

If we serve for ourselves, pride comes before the fall

We serve to return to the way it was before the Fall.

And the name says it all.

Jacob’s Well.

Before the name ever came to mean what it means

Before the church had a sign, before any of us had the means

Come with me now in this time machine

As we go back to a small stack of stones in the Middle East

We see a woman coming, the least of the least

To be walking at midday in this dry summer heat

She sees a man sitting, resting his feet

And she knows it’s not proper for either to speak

Yet the man says unto her, “Give me a drink.”

Now what just took place in this simple request

You can probably guess, but its much more astounding

If you realize that the one who so politely asked

For water is the Lord of Lords who, to this woman, was masked

And that is why, with her heart probably pounding

Could hardly hear the words he was sounding

So she responded with nothing but just simple facts.

I am from Samaria, she said.

If you can’t get that one simple fact through your head,

Than you’d know that you shouldn’t be asking for water.

From me,” she said.  Jesus said, “my daughter,

If you knew who it was who requested of you

And the gift of God which is given to you.

You would have a different view of this situation

And you’d be asking for water that will give you salvation.”

“The well is deep, she said.

If you can’t get that one simple fact through your head,

Then you’ll see you have nothing to retrieve the water

And by the way, this well is from Jacob, our father.”

Jesus replied, “This well may be deep, but my well is deeper.

And the water I give will refresh any seeker.

For this water you drink will have you coming back again and again

But, who drinks of my water will be quenched till the end.

I want that water, she said.

I think I’ve gotten this fact through my head

If I drink what you offer, I can stay in my house.

And I won’t have to return.”  Jesus said, “Call your spouse.”

I haven’t a husband, she said.

And she prayed that this man couldn’t see into her head

But Jesus, this man she knew nothing about

Seemed to know all about her, both inside and out.

“You don’t have a husband,” he said.

And it’s not that he’s left you, or that he’s already dead.

But you’ve actually had five men and the one you’re with now

Is not a man with whom you’ve taken any vows.”

“I see you are a prophet,” she said.

“You seem to know every thought that has gone through my head

And as her pulse began to thicken,

She was suddenly stricken,

By the fact that her faith could have been in folly misgiven

And it was at that spot, as she stood by Jacob’s Well

That lines of her thoughts, which had been parallel

Seemed suddenly to shift, to become unfamiliar

The truths of her worldview suddenly rendered perpendicular

By the words of this Jew who grew more and more peculiar

A time is coming, Jesus said

When it’s not going to matter what’s been put in your head

Or in what town you worship or what mountain you climb

Or what you and your father ascribe as divine.

No, The God of this World is not limited by your earthly factions

Your attempted subtractions, your elaborate distractions

Your aesthetic contraptions, your sacrificial actions

No, the God of this World is spirit.

And only those who listen can hear it.”

“The Messiah”, she said.

“The Messiah, when he comes, will explain everything to me.”

Jesus said, “I, that speak unto thee, am He.”

This episode to me epitomizes the need 

To energize the people of God who believe

At this church, named after the place in this story

to proclaim Jesus Christ, to worship his Glory

To sing songs to his name, to embrace the Trinity,

To lift up His Name, to say as one, “We adore thee.”

Yet we all comes to Jacob’s Well for different reasons

Some during times of joy, some during difficult seasons

Some come as the result of a friend’s invitation

Some come to bear the fruit of their salvation

Some might not even know why they came in the first place

But because of God’s grace they remain in this place

Because God displaced their disgrace and effaced their distaste

With this World, so that we might one day see His face.

Some come to worship with their heavenly family members

Others come to rekindle the flame of their faith’s dying embers

Some come bearing sins that need to be confessed

But we all come thirsty, we all want to be refreshed.

For this church is not a place for faith experts, but faith beginners

Not a museum of saints, but a hospital for sinners.

And like that woman that we met we may not be met in person

By Jesus of Nazareth, but what he said is still certain

That God is Spirit, and if we come to this water,

We will not leave the same, now that God is our Father.

And like that woman’s worldview was shifted and shaped

By the God who made her and engaged in debate

With her thoughts and her feelings of what she thought was so right

But when confronted with Truth, she could not put a fight

And I have a feeling, if we could only go back and ask her,

She would say, “Listen well when you’re taught by your Pastor

When He opens the Scriptures and tells you to stand

With the God who through ages has always had a plan.

I was just like you all when I came to that Well

Looking for whatever I could to be well

I fell into hell and my lungs couldn’t yell

And my mouth couldn’t tell how I knew that I felt.

Yet this man, this Jesus, this Messiah, this God

Knew the real me for who I was and who I was not.

Jacob’s Well was a place that I came, 

day after day it was always the same

Until I met this man who I didn’t think knew my name

And because of that, I am no longer the same. 

And my way of thinking of God got so crossed

When I realized the cross of my thoughts was His cross.

And that is why the name that’s embossed

On the side of your church is the hope for the lost.

Jesus Christ.

Came for me. I am blessed.

Jacob’s Well.

Come thirsty.  Be refreshed.